Shower head and curtain rod assembly



July 24, 1962 C. A. WEINGART SHOWER HEAD AND CURTAIN ROD ASSEMBLY Filed June 4. 1959 FIG. 2

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United States v Patent Ofiiice Efliilfil Patented July 24, 1962 3,045,251 SHOWER HEAD AND CURTAIN R01) ASSELY Charles A. Weingart, 5629 42nd Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn. Filed June 4, 1959, Ser. No. 818,185 4 Claims. (Cl. 4154) This invention is an improved shower head and curtain rod assembly that has as its principal point of novelty means for supporting a shower head and encircling shower curtain so that the controls for the shower are inside the compass of the curtain. This novel result is achieved by having the shower curtain rod held by a bracket so that it is closer to the mounting surface than the shower control and spray head portion. Other features and advantages of the device comprise having the channels that support the shower pipes and curtain rod placed closely together so that the pipes supplying water to the shower spray head bear on and aid in frictionally retaining in position the shower curtain rod. A lug is also provided in the curtain rod channel to assure centering the shower curtain properly in the bracket. Portions of the device that provide a wall mounting flange are misaligned with the various channels supporting portions of the shower assembly so that the bolt, screws, or other means of securing the device to a wall may be tightened or loosened without interference from the balance of the unit. It is also a novel feature of my device that the rearmost portion can be separately secured to a wall and the remainder of the structure added piece by piece, each overlying and supporting the other until the final outer portion of the bracket is positioned, always permitting the worker to have one free hand with which to pick up the next portion of the assembly.

Showers installed where the source of water for the shower is from overhead as in the basement of houses, industrial washrooms, or schools have'been unsatisfactory. Solutions proifered have been brackets of various sorts to hold the curtain and head separately, combination brackets, and shower stalls of various kinds. Combination brackets known to me provide a shower curtain support in front of the control handles for the shower. In such a structure, it is necessary to part the shower curtain in order to get at the temperature controls which is unsatisfactory. So parting the curtains permits water spraying from the shower head to possibly escape through the curtain opening and onto an adjacent wall. Opening the shower curtain for any reason permits the entrance of cool air drafts rather unpleasant to the person using it. Brackets intended to support shower curtains have also been usually somewhat diflicult to mount in that it was necessary to have the entire assembly put together before it was secured to a wall. An assembled unit exerts enough leverage during installation as to require one workman to support the rod while the other inserts and tightens the anchor bolts or screws. In the alternative, a single workman must provide a supplemental support while he is inserting the anchoring devices. Another solution to the basement shower problem has been to build a separate small enclosure or to use a prefabricated enclosure of metal for the shower. The difficulties with these structures has been that the metal units frequently rusted out soon while the more permanent structures such as masonry and the like frequently develop an unpleasant, musty odor.

My present structure obviates all the difficulties enumerated above by providing a shower curtain rod that permits the shower curtain to be completely folded back against the wall when not in use and at the same time causes the curtain to pass behind the control knobs when it is in use, thus allowing the user to set the water temperature to his preference without need to open the curtains, thereby avoiding unpleasant drafts. By opening the curtains up the musty odor sometimes developed in permanent structures is avoided. Furthermore, my structure permits the ready mounting of the entire unit by a single workman without need for temporary supports by having the shower curtain rod supported frictionally so that it may be rotated from a vertical to horizontal position after the device is mounted. Accordingly, it is the principal object of this invention to provide a shower head and curtain assembly thatper-mits thecurtain to extend behind the shower water controls.

It is a furthe? object of this invention to provide such a shower curtain assembly that is easily mounted by a single workman without temporary structures or supports being applied to the unit.

A still further object of this invention is to provide such a shower support that is consistently and accurately mounted even by. unskilled workmen.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide such a shower bracket that can be tightened on its mountings when the entire unit is assembled.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, this invention then comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description setting forth in detail certain illustrative embodiments of the invention, these being indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed.

The invention is illustrated by the accompanying drawings in which the same numerals refer to corresponding parts and in which:

FIG. 1 is a vertical section through the entire shower assembly with portions of the curtain and its rod deleted to conserve space; a portion of one of the water supply pipes is also broken oif so that the spray head shows clearly; hidden elements are shown with broken lines;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation view taken as viewed on the line 22 of FIG. 1; broken lines illustrate hidden parts;

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal section through the bracket taken on the line 33 of FIG. 2.; broken lines illustrate hidden parts; and

FIG. 4 is a plan view of my bracket witha fragment of the shower curtain rod and sectional portions of the shower head pipes included; broken lines illustrate hidden parts. V

In FIG. 1 of the drawings, the invention is seen mounted on a representation of a wall surface iii. The rear bracket half 11 is provided with flanges at12. and 14 for the upper and lower flanges, respectively. These flanges are provided with openings through which extend suitable mounting anchor devices as the screws 15, for example. A channel designated 16 is provided running horizontally through the bracket to receive a shower curtain rod 17. Actually only a portion of the channel is formed in the rear bracket half, the other portion being formed in the front bracket half 18. The half of the channel for the shower curtain 17 formed in the front bracket half 18 is designated 16' to both relate and distinguish it from the similar channel half formed in the rear bracket portion. As shown in FIG. 4 there are channel portions 19 in the rear half and 19' in the front half of the bracket to receive the pipes such as the ones 20, 21 and 2.2 which are the water supply and shower spray head supply pipes for the shower assembly. These channels 19 and 19' extend transversely of the channel 16 and 16' and are arranged so that the longitudinal axes of 19 and 19' are closer to the longitudinal axis of the channel 16 and 16' than the sum of the radii of any one of the pipes 20, 21 and 22 and the shower curtain rod 17. Thus, as shown in FIG. 3 at 24, the pipes 2t}, 21 and 22 engage and bear on shower curtain rod 17. Any suitable means such as the bolts 25 are provided for clamping two halves of the bracket together. As these bracket halves are clamped together, they frictionally grip and hold both the shower rod 17 and the pipes 2t), 21 and 22. As is shown clearly in FIGS. 1 and 2, the shower curtain 26 is supported by conventional rings 27 and extends behind the pipes 20, 21 and 22. The mixing faucet assembly 28 is therefore inside the shower curtain when it is in use by a person. For this reason the control handles can be reached easily without opening the curtain to adjust properly the temperature of the water being used.

As can be seen in FIG. 2, the holes to receive screws 15 are arranged as to be misaligned with all of the balance of the pipes and bracket portions supporting the shower curtain rod and the water supply pipes. For this reason screws 25 may be tightened if they ever should become loose after the unit is mounted without interference from the rest of the structure.

Flanges 12 and 14 may also be seen in FIGURE 4 to be misaligned in plan with respect to channels of the bracket; whereby the flanges may engage a flat wall surface and support the portions of the shower head and curtain rod extending through the bracket parallel to the flat wall surface.

In FIG. 3 a lug designated 29 in the center of the chan nel portion 16 provides a stop against which the ends of shower curtain rod 17 butts. This lug aligns properly the shower curtain rod 17 in the bracket to prevent it from being misaligned by do-it-yourself handymen or inexperienced installation personnel. It also aids experienced people in quickly aligning the shower curtain rod precisely in the center for the best appearance and most reasonable clearance of the shower curtain with respect to the shower spray head 30.

In FIG. 2 the means for extending the curtain behind the pipes on either side of the brackets is disclosed clearly in that the hangers or rings 27 are spaced by the shower curtain so that one will easily fit on either side of the bracket with the shower curtain bridging the space between them nicely.

In putting the shower curtain up, it can be seen that the rear bracket half 11 can be placed against the wall and screw firmly placed in position. After the rear half of the bracket is thus properly located, the workmen can place shower curtain rod 17 in the bracket half 11 and support it there with one hand while he has a free hand to pick up and position, as desired, the shower head pipes assembled as shown to the mixing faucet 28. When the shower assembly is positioned, it will prevent the shower curtain rod 17 from falling out of the bracket half 11. The workman, therefore, now has free the hand which previously held shower curtain rod 17 so that he can pick up and position the bracket half 18 to hold in place the pipes 20, 21 and 22. Again a hand is freed with which the workman can pick up bolts 25 and put them tentatively in place to hold the entire assembly together until clamping pressure can be applied to the bolts 25 with a wrench. As shower curtain rod 17 is held in position by friction only, it may depend from the bracket while cap screws 25 are tightened enough to just begin to apply clamping action. When tension has begun to grip the shower curtain rod 17, it can be pivoted from the vertical position into the desired horizontal one and friction will be adequate at this point to support it in such position until bolts 25 can be securely tightened to permanently fix the position of shower curtain rod 17. The final clamping causes the channel sides of channel 16 and i 16' and 19 and 19' to bear tightly on the shower curtain rod 17 and the pipes 20, 21 and 22 throughly securing them all in position. At the same time pipes 20, 21 and 22 bear on shower curtain rod 17 to add to the friction holding the shower curtain rod in a horizontal position.

It is apparent that many modifications and variations of this invention as hereinbefore set forth may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. The specific embodiments described are given by way of example only and the invention is limited only by the terms of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A shower assembly support comprising: a bracket member having means for supporting rigidly at right angles to each other a shower head and shower curtain rod, a wall mounting flange formed on said bracket, said shower curtain rod supporting means being nearer said wall mounting flange than said shower head supporting means, said wall mounting flange constructed and adapted to engage aflat wall surface and support the portions of said shower head and shower curtain rod extending through said bracket substantially parallel to a flat wall surface, said bracket consisting of two parts that can be clamped together, said means for supporting a shower curtain rod comprising a channel formed in both parts of said bracket that grips said shower curtain rod frictionally when said bracket is clamped, said means for supporting said shower head comprising at least two shower head pipe channels formed in both parts of said bracket transverse to said channel for said shower curtain rod and with the centers of said shower head pipe channels spaced from the center of said shower curtain rod channel less than the sum of the radii of a shower curtain rod and a shower head pipe with which said bracket i to be used.

2. A shower assembly for use with an overhead water source comprising; a shower head assembly having a mixing faucet, hot and cold water pipes, shower spray head, and a pipe extending between said hot and cold water pipes connecting said shower spray head to said mixing faucet; an outer bracket half having portions of three channels formed therein for partially embracing said pipes, said outer bracket half having also a portion of a shower rod receiving channel transverse to said pipe channel portions; a rear bracket half having channel portions complementary to the channel portions of said outer bracket half; mounting flanges formed on said rear bracket half; a shower curtain rod; and means for clamping said bracket halves together; the distance from the axis of any one of said pipe channels to the axis of said shower curtain rod channel is less than the combined radii of a pipe and said shower curtain rod, said shower curtain rod channel being nearer said flanges than are said pipe channels.

3. The shower assembly of claim 2 in which said flanges are misaligned with respect to said channels when said bracket is viewed in plan.

4. The shower assembly of claim 2 in which said flanges are misaligned with respect to said channels when said bracket is viewed in elevation.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,048,704 King Dec. 31, 1912 1,714,218 Frost May 21, 1929 2,021,745 Pfefferle et a1 Nov. 19, 1935 

